Study of mechanical behavior of single walled carbon nanotube reinforced matrix representative volume elements

The purpose of this study is to develop finite element models to evaluate the mechanical behavior (stiffness) of carbon nanotube reinforced composites and gain knowledge of the parameters that affect the mechanical behavior of the composite. Representative volume elements (RVEs) are used to study such parameters and their performance and accuracy in doing so are compared and discussed. The microstructural parameters of interest can be loosely categorized into a group, those related to the geometry of the composite. Among the geometry-related parameters of particular interest is the nanotube aspect ratio. Three dimensional Finite Elements Models of nanotubes embedded in different matrices were created by assuming perfect bonding between the nanotube and matrix to analyze the macroscopic mechanical behavior of nanotube-reinforced composites. The results were then compared with that of Liu and Chen's work to check for accuracy. We also studied the effects of different nanotube aspect ratios and material properties on the stress distribution.